Your wedding day is a one-time event that you can never get back once it’s gone. While some wedding couples encourage their friends and family to capture as many moments as they can, others prefer to have an “unplugged wedding” where they ask their guests to turn off their phones for their big day. From many photographers’ perspective, there is almost nothing worse than a good shot being ruined by well-intentioned guests getting in the way with their camera phones.
Let Your Wedding Photographer Handle Your Photos
Wedding photographers cost a lot of money and they take their job very seriously. It’s hard enough to get great shots during a fast-paced wedding, but it makes the job even harder when guests are standing in the aisle trying to capture your shot on their phone. Many times guests are so caught up in trying to take pictures or video that they miss the moment. Guests are there to participate in the wedding as audience members and witness the bride and groom’s special day. The photographers and videographers are paid to capture those moments. Let them handle it and encourage your guests to enjoy the precious moment.
One of the keys to good photography is drawing the viewer’s eyes straight to the subject. When lots of guests are holding their phones up in the air it’s distracting. A wedding doesn’t look as good in a photo with big ipad screens all over the place and half of the audience watching through their phone.
How Camera Phones Can Interfere With Good Photos
Other problems may arise when guests use their cameras during your wedding. Guests’ flash may interfere with the exposure settings on the photographer’s camera. A second flash could cause the photo to be overexposed. Also, the photographer may be using a flash with a orange-like color (tungsten) to match the ambient light. If a guest uses a daylight flash on their phone it could throw the color of the image off. These things usually aren’t a huge problem. But if guests are allowed to freely use their cameras, it opens up the door for variables outside of the photographer’s control, which can interfere and cause problems.
Guests can take photos at your wedding and immediately upload them to social media sites. This can happen without you even knowing it. The way technology is today, other people can see your wedding photos online before your ceremony is even over! This may be a good or bad thing, depending on how you feel about it. You may want to be the first one to see your wedding photos. You may also want to screen the photos before anyone sees them so others don’t see bad photos of your wedding.
Even if your guests only upload good photos, their friends will have a chance to see your wedding photos long before you get your professional photos from your photographer weeks later. That means that they may not be as excited to see them considering that they may have been seeing them online for weeks. They may be tired of seeing your wedding photos by that point. At the very least, the anticipation will be gone and they won’t be as thrilled to see your newly released wedding photos.
Allow Camera Phones At The Reception
Choosing whether or not to have an unplugged wedding doesn’t have to be a black or white issue. You can prohibit them from using their cameras during the ceremony but allow it during the reception. During the ceremony there is a central point of focus so everyone will be trying to shoot the same thing at the same time. During the reception there are lots of things going on during the same time so it’s different.
Share Your Wedding Photos With Your Guests
If your guests are concerned about not being able to capture those precious moments themselves, you can give them copies of the photos and/or video. That way they get the best of both worlds. They get to enjoy the wedding and receive professional photos and a video. We don’t do anything to prevent you from making copies of your photos or video. In fact, we encourage you to make copies for family and friends. That way you have backups of your precious memories. Even better, you’ll have backups of your precious memories spread out in different places. Having several backups in different places minimizes your risk of losing your precious memories that can never be replaced.